Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer

In the small city of Strattenburg, there are many lawyers, and though he’s only 13 years old, Theo Boone thinks he’s one of them. Theo knows every judge, policeman, court clerk—and a lot about the law. He dreams of being a great trial lawyer, of a life in the courtroom. But Theo finds himself in court much sooner than expected. Because he knows so much—maybe too much—he is suddenly dragged into the middle of a sensational murder trial.

Richard Thomas did a great job reading this story. I have not cared to much for some of John Grisham's most recent books but this one was great. I noted it was for children but adults will enjoy it. Other than the hero being a 12 year old the story is much more an adult story than what I think of as a child's book. Could not stop listening.

The Wal-Mart Effect

Drawing on unprecedented interviews with former Wal-Mart executives and a wealth of staggering data�including facts such as this: Americans spend $36 million an hour at Wal-Mart stores, this text is an intimate look at a business that is dramatically reshaping the American economy.

I must admit up front that I have never been in a Wal-Mart store and there is no Wal-Mart store anywhere near where I live. My second disclaimer is I absolutely hate to shop; I rush in and obtain the items I need and rush out of the store. Since the 1960 I have made it a mission of mine to buy products made in the United States even if I have to pay more or do without if I cannot find products made in the United State or Canada.

Fishman has done extensive research for this book. He has drawn on unprecedented interviews with former Wal-Mart executives; pursued a wealth of business and economic data and has created an interesting look at the corporation.

Fishman states the story of Wal-Mart is really the story of the transformation of the American economy over the past twenty years. Fishman presents a case for Wal-Mart (mostly consumer benefit) and against Wal-Mart. Fishman puts the reader inside the company’s penny-pinching mindset and shows how Wal-Mart’s mania to reduce prices has driven suppliers into bankruptcy and sent factory jobs overseas.

The “Wal-Mart effect” has become a common phase in the vocabulary of economists, and includes a broad range of effects, such as forcing local competitors out of business, driving down wages, and keeping inflation low and productivity high. Fishman discusses the replacement of quality with cheapness. The author sees Wal-Mart as neither good nor evil, but simply a fact of modern life. I enjoyed the fact he told stories and named the product and or company he spoke of to demonstrate the good or bad effect. I found the afterword the most important part of the book.

The book is well written and well organized. Fishman has made the book understandable and easy to read. Alan Sklar narrated the book.

Undaunted: Kris Longknife, Book 7

Kris Longknife encounters some peaceful aliens who have come to warn humanity of an unidentifiable force that is roaming the galaxy, obliterating everything in its path - a path now leading directly toward the human worlds.

This is book seven in the Longknife series. Kris and crew aboard the exploratory ship USS Wasp have blundered into an encounter with an Iteechee vessel. The Iteechee is the race with which humanity had a war 80 years previously. They are so mysterious the cause of the war is still unknown. Kris’ great- grandparents King Raymond and General “Trouble” both fought in the war. The Iteechee death ball vessel wants to speak to Kris, as an envoy from great-grandfather King Ray to plea for galactic safety. Kris takes the delegation of Iteechee to meet with King Ray. Kris is sent off to a planet on a diplomatic mission (with the Iteechee delegation on board her vessel). As usual she is walking into trouble.

The book is well written with a good strong plot. There is lots of banter as usual between the characters. Shepherd has created an enjoyable cast of characters to play foil to Kris. The strength of the story is the strong supporting cast of Kris’ crew and friends, including her computer Nelly, who is developing her own personality in interesting ways. Nelly created her ‘babies” and each of the key people of Kris’s crew were given their own super smart computer. Nelly created a way to hook them to their owner’s mind without the surgery that Kris had. Of course this external attachment does not work as completely as Kris and Nelly’s. Nelly made it clear that none of her “babies” are as smart as she is.

My only complaint is I am getting tired of hearing “one-of-those-damn-longknives” repeated over and over. It is starting to get annoying. This book has less action than prior books but still has lots of suspense. It is great the story is breaking away from the Peterwald feud and is opening up to the galaxy for Shepherd to play with. Dina Pearlman is doing a good job narrating this series.

iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Along the Way

Before cell phones that fit in the palm of your hand and slim laptops that fit snugly into briefcases, computers were like strange, alien vending machines. They had cryptic switches, punch cards, and pages of encoded output. But in 1975, a young engineering wizard named Steve Wozniak had an idea: What if you combined computer circuitry with a regular typewriter keyboard and a video screen?

This is the memoirs of a computer engineer so the book has a lot of technical information. The author tells about growing up in Sunnyvale, California and working on creating or should I say designing a personal computer. He tells about his group of computer nerds, belonging to a computer club and the founding of Apple Computer Company. It was great to hear from Woz how many of his teachers had a positive effect on him. Helping him push ahead of his class in math and giving him self-confidence in his abilities. He also went into detail about the positive effect his father had in teaching him about physics and electronics and engineering starting at age 4. Woz says his father was an engineer. His mother encouraged and helped him with math from the first grade on. Woz states he entered every science fair all during his schooling and felt he learned a great deal from the experience.

Woz tells about his relationship with Steve Jobs and other people in his work group. Woz designed Apple I and the Apple II.

Despite the help of a co-writer, journalist Gina Smith, the book is difficult to read and is poorly written. The repetitions were what got to me. Woz says so much written about him is wrong so he just wanted to set the record straight.

The book provides an inside look at the building of Apple I and II and the founding of the Apple Company. The book is well worth the read if you are interested in the tech industry and the history of the personal computer. Patrick Lawler narrated the story.

The Admirals' Game

1794. Lieutenant John Pearce is caught between a feuding trio of admirals. One puts him in a position of danger while another asks him to undertake a hazardous commission in order to protect his friends, the Pelicans. Meanwhile, Pearce is also trying to construct a perjury case against Admiral Ralph Barclay.

This is the fifth book in the John Pearce Pelican series. Please note you should read this series in order as each book builds on the next.

The series is set against the backdrop of the French Revolution in 1794. We learned in prior books that Pearce and a group of men from the Pelican Pub was gang pressed into the Royal Navy by Captain Ralph Barclay. Pearce and the Pelican claim to have been illegally seized in an area that was off limits to press gangs. Pearce due to his ability and bravery was appointed a lieutenant by the King which caused some hostility from officers who have worked their way up the ranks. In this story the British are starting to lose the battle for Toulon as a new commander has taken over the French artillery. Hurrah! I knew Napoleon would be showing up in this battle.

Pearce’s main assignment in this book is to take a message to Naples, an Italian State ruled by Spanish Bourbons with a Hapsburg Queen (sister of Marie Antoinette), to seek assistance to help the British and the French Royalist hold Toulon.

As with the prior episodes in the series we have feuding senior naval officers’ striving for political sponsorship and battle honor. Each naval battle is well written and gripping to read. The historical detail is accurate and makes the story absorbing and exciting to read. Donachie’s ability to write realistic and historically accurate naval battle is improving with each book. He is becoming to naval battles what Bernard Cornwell is to land battle scenes. Peter Wickham narrated the book.

Semper Fi: The Empire's Corps, Book 4

Two years after the empire abandoned them on Avalon, Colonel Edward Stalker and his marines have established the Commonwealth, a union of worlds intended to take the place of the vanished empire. But now contact has been made with a remnant of the empire, a successor state controlled by a ruthless dictator bent on crushing the Commonwealth and expanding her rule over the entire galaxy.

This is book four in the Empire’s Corps series. You really need to read the books in order to fully enjoy the series.

The Empire has collapsed. On Avalon, Captain Stalker and his Marines have tried to establish a Democratic Republic. Avalon is arming as fast as possible, building modern starships for defense, and the Marines are training a local militia. We even find there is romance budding between Stalker and President Gaby Cracker. We get to renew the relationships with the regular characters in the series such as Jasmine but this book provides us with some new characters chief among them is a villain.

Commodore Rani Singh had been passed over for promotion. When the Empire collapsed, Singh was in charge of a Fleet Base and had under her control several capitol ships as well as support vessels and a Logistics Base. She sets out to create her own Empire until she tries to conquer Avalon. Stalker’s Marines must stop her. Lt. Jasmine goes into a covert operation to dismantle Singh’s Empire. There is lots of action and suspense in the story.

The book is well written and fairly fast paced. In many ways it is a typical military sci-fi story. Overall the story makes a good fun relaxing read. Jeffrey Kafer has narrated the series.

The author conceived of this project while a visiting research scholar at Wellesley Centers for Women in the 1990s. The stories were so compelling that she decided they must be made available to the general public rather than merely to an academic audience. The book is based on extensive interviews with highly successful women scientists and artists who were ages 65 to 95 when the author met them.

Karma Kitaj chose twenty-six successful women who made their mark in the early twentieth century when the roles of women in most fields were more limited than they are today. She writes about the factors that contributed to their success and the hurdles they had to overcome. These women were all prominent in their fields of science, art, music, education. I was most interested in the science women particularly the two in physics and the physician that won the Nobel Prize.

The book is well written and informative. I enjoy learning how people over come challenges and use their gifts to success in their professions and Kitaj provided me with interesting examples.

I understand Kitaj turn her academic studies into work readable by the average reader. The book is narrated by Paige Allison.

The Girl on the Train: A Novel

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. "Jess and Jason," she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good? Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.

I understand this is the first book for the author and she did manage to come up with a different idea for the book. It is interesting that I find myself able to observe this book in the manner I think the author had intended and find the author’s approach to the book interesting. As a reader, I did not feel the book pulled me in nor did I become involved in the story; I stayed an observer of the story. I am not sure why I could not become involved in the story but I am sure it’s me, not the author’s fault.

The girl on the train is Rachel. She is divorced, an alcoholic, and unemployed. Her daily commute into London on the commuter train is a sham. The train passes through the neighborhood where her ex-husband lives with his new wife Anna.

One day Rachel sees a glamorous young couple in a house a few doors from Anna’s home. She creates a fantasy about them to help compensate for her own life. One day she sees something. Megan is the young women she is fantasizing about. The question the reader needs to solve, is did she really see what she thought she saw or was it an alcoholic hallucination or was she so drunk she confused what she saw.

The book is well written and ingeniously constructed. The first person narration goes between the three main female characters Rachel, Anna and Megan. The book uses three different women narrators to enhance the effect; they are Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey and India Fisher.

The portrait of Rachel as a chronic drunk who just might save herself by playing detective is intriguing. The ending had a twist which could catch one off guard. The book dragged at times but the suspense kept me reading. The book did have some profanity which I was not aware from other book reviews or from the publisher. I normally avoid books with profanity. Otherwise I found the book quite interesting and a nice break from reading non-fiction.

Riding the Roller Coaster: A History of the Chrysler Corporation: Great Lakes Books Series

The book covers Walter P. Chrysler's life and automotive career before 1925, when he founded the Chrysler Corporation, to 1998, when it merged with Daimler-Benz. Chrysler made a late entrance into the industry in 1925, when it emerged from Chalmers and Maxwell, and further grew when it absorbed Dodge Brothers and American Motors Corporation.

I have always had a fascination with cars. Back in the fifties I use to think the car’s looked beautiful but now they all look the same. I remember in High School I was furious because the administration would not allow me to take auto shop, they said only boys could take the course. I do enjoy reading about automobiles planes and ships and now no one call tell I cannot read the book.

Americans are a nation of car cultures, plural. Automobile racing is a popular spectator sport. The early adoption of the automobile for private transportation and the restoration of old cars to the making of street rods are popular.

It is surprising that there are few authoritative scholarly histories of automobile companies written. Last year I read the biography of Henry Ford and found it most interesting. So when I saw this book on Chrysler displayed on Audible, I bought it.

Hyde tells the story behind Chrysler- its products, people and performance over time with particular focus on the company’s management including Lee Iacocca. The author begins with the story of Walter P Chrysler in 1925 and ends with the merger of Chrysler and Daimler-Benz in 1998. I was hoping this was a biography of the Chrysler brothers but it is primarily a business history book. Hyde discusses assembly line production and the architecture of automobile plants and their management. Hyde is an economic historian and an industrial archaeologist. He is a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit since 1974.

The book is balanced and Hyde does not shy away from making critical observations. I found the book an interesting story of the smaller component of the big three American auto companies. Dave K. Lawson narrated the book.

Obsession in Death: In Death, Book 40

Eve Dallas has solved a lot of high-profile murders for the NYPSD and gotten a lot of media. She - and her billionaire husband - are getting accustomed to being objects of attention, of gossip, of speculation. But now Eve has become the object of one person's obsession. Someone who finds her extraordinary, and thinks about her every hour of every day. Who believes the two of them have a special relationship. Who would kill for her - again and again....

It is amazing that J. D. Robb still has some fresh ideas for the 40th book in the Death series. Most authors have burned out before ever reaching this many books in a series.

In this book Lt. Eve Dallas and Officer Peabody are investigating the murder of Leanore Bastwich a well known criminal defense attorney. Bastwich appeared in prior issues in this series. There is a message written on the wall to Dallas by the killer and signed “your true and loyal friend.” Then Ledo an illegal substance dealer and pool player is killed, poked to death with a pool cue in his chest, and there is another message for Dallas. Then the killer fails to kill the next victim providing Dallas with more clues. The Killer decides to focus on Dallas’s friends trying to decide which one to kill, will it be Charlotte Mira, M.D. or Nadine Furst.

The killer’s obsession with Dallas is a different plot than the other books in the series. The book has lots of futuristic tech along with suspense, there is less mystery involved in this story. Robb’s plots and characters are larger than life. They provide melodrama, snappy dialogue to the plot. I find I enjoy Robb’s short tight sentence, fast pace, and gripping style of writing; it works great in the audio format. Susan Ericksen is the narrator for the series.

William McKinley

By any serious measurement, best-selling historian Kevin Phillips argues, William McKinley was a major American president. It was during his administration that the United States made its diplomatic and military debut as a world power. McKinley was one of eight presidents who, either in the White House or on the battlefield, stood as principals in successful wars, and he was among the six or seven to take office in what became recognized as a major realignment of the U.S. party system.

William McKinley (1843-1901) was president from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. He was the twenty-five president of the United States. McKinley was a strong governor of Ohio and a decisive president whose stern looks hid a thoughtful and gentle man. William McKinley was a Civil war veteran and a Lincoln Republican.

Phillip details how McKinley presided over the emergence of the United States as a world power in the Spanish-American war. McKinley’s election in 1890 ushered in approximately forty years of Republican political dominance.

Phillip points out that McKinley was one of eight presidents, who either in the White House or on the battlefield, led the nation in successful Wars; and he was among the six or seven to take office in what become recognized as a major realignment of the United States’ party system. McKinley was among the sixteen United States presidents elected to two terms, and avoided the tarnish of major scandal.

The author points out that McKinley was a “hinge president,” whose first term ushered in the 20th century, and who ‘presided over the fruition of the Northern or Yankee version of U.S. expansionism, a commercial manifest destiny tied to increasing American exports.’In 1901 McKinley was assassinated by a deranged anarchist’. McKinley’s vice president Theodore Roosevelt took over the presidency and carried on McKinley’s moderate platform. Roosevelt’s charisma overshadowed McKinley over historical time.

This book is more of a political analysis of William McKinley rather than a biography as Phillips tell what other historians have written about McKinley and argues with many of them. The book is narrated by Richard Rohan.

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